Natural Medicine vs. Traditional Medicine: One Real-World Anecdote

It’s winter and people are coughing and hacking all night. Last night, my poor niece was coughing every 15-20 seconds. Literally, she was hacking every few seconds. I was unable to record even 30 seconds of uninterrupted audio because the coughing was so loud and so frequent. The poor thing had been dosed all day with cough medicine and coated with vapo-rub, all against my recommendations and all to no avail. She continued to cough and be miserable. All those chemicals and by-products for nothing. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I took a teaspoon of olive oil and 5 drops of eucalyptus essential oil and mixed it together, rubbed it into the soles of her feet and covered her feet with socks. She didn’t cough again for about 5 hours and even then, she only coughed a very few times. $4 for eucalyptus essential oil that worked vs. $10+ for children’s cough medicine and vapo-rub that didn’t work and are also full of harmful chemicals and by-products. The math here is easy.

This is of course not the only anecdote I could give you that shows natural medicine works better, faster and more efficiently. It is just the most recent one. Tonight if she coughs, I’m going to change the ratio of oils so that there is a little less oilive oil this time and that should work even better. There are a lot of people who advocate applying essential oils “neat” (undiluted) but I don’t advocate that myself, especially with children. Essential oils are powerful chemical compounds and care should be taken when they are used. They can cause chemical burns, skin irritations, allergic reactions and other unpleasant things if they are not used carefully and correctly. So can lots of other things, of course. As long as you are careful and follow directions, you will be safe with essential oils.

Always seek the advice of a good aromatherapist, herbalist or naturopath if you have any questions and don’t take any essential oils internally, place in the eye or put in the ear.